GymFlow

Garmin's built-in strength mode counts your reps wrong, makes you edit sets with four button presses each, and ends with a summary that tells you almost nothing. GymFlow replaces that flow with the one thing a lifter needs between sets: press START, done. Everything runs on the watch, offline, with no account and no phone in your hand between sets. IN THE GYM The watch shows the exercise, which set you are on, and the weight and reps prescribed. • Press START when you finish a set. Logged. • The rest timer starts by itself and the watch vibrates when it is time to work again. • UP and DOWN adjust the working weight, and the change is remembered for next session. • BACK undoes a set logged by mistake. • Hold MENU to log a short set, change the lift, move on, finish, or reset your progress. No rep counting guesswork. You did the set, you pressed the button, the log is right. WHEN THE SET DOES NOT GO TO PLAN You were asked for ten and you got eight. That is information, and GymFlow records it rather than quietly filing the ten it asked for. Hold MENU, choose Log short set, dial what you did and press START. The worst set of an exercise decides whether you met the prescription, so ten, ten, eight against a target of ten counts as short — and next session repeats that target at the same weight instead of piling another rep on a session you never finished. The set that goes to plan is still one press. DARK, OR LIGHT IF YOU PREFER Dark by default, to match everything else on your watch. There is a light setting in Garmin Connect if you want the white panel, which reflects more sun on a fenix or Enduro. DRINK REMINDERS A prompt to drink appears on the rest screen on an interval you choose, because rest is when you can actually reach a bottle. Set it to 0 in Garmin Connect to switch it off. BUILD THE ROUTINE ON THE WATCH • A library of 24 lifts, picked by holding MENU. Sets and reps come with each one. • Four slots, editable in Garmin Connect too. Leave one empty for a shorter day. IT KNOWS WHAT YOU LIFTED LAST TIME Every lift keeps its own record, so it follows the exercise even when you reorder your routine. The screen shows today's target and, underneath it, what you did last session. Four ways to progress, chosen in Garmin Connect: • OFF keeps your numbers exactly as you set them. • LINEAR adds one weight step every session. • DOUBLE PROGRESSION climbs the reps to the top of your range, then adds weight and starts the range again. This is the default. • 2R2F autoregulates: after the last set the watch asks how many reps you had left, and sets the next target from your answer. Miss twice in a row and the weight drops to something you can actually load, so you are never handed a session you have already failed twice. WHAT GARMIN CONNECT GETS • Every exercise with sets completed and volume lifted, plus your session total in kilos. • Each set written into the activity file as a lap, with its name, reps, weight and set number. • The activity recorded as strength training, with your heart rate. SETTINGS In the Garmin Connect app: four exercise slots with name, sets, reps and weight, rest duration, the weight step used by UP and DOWN, your progression mode, how far the reps climb before the weight goes up, your reps-in-reserve target, how often to remind you to drink, and a light background if you want one. Free, offline, no account. Works on fenix 6, 7 and 8, epix, Enduro and Forerunner 255, 265, 955, 965 and 970. MORE FROM ME • RainSoon, a rain nowcast that tells you the minute rain starts: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/121ddeba-fd65-4784-941e-86a1fbac7e6d • FuelCoach, eat and drink reminders for long sessions: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/50d4f5cd-f7c6-4908-aa9b-e813981598e7 GymFlow is free, with no account, no subscription and no ads, and it stays that way. If it earns its place in your gym bag, buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/olkokoval

GymFlow is dark now, like the rest of your watch. Thanks to the person on Reddit who pointed out it was the only white app they had. This also fixes something worse: the workout screen was white while rest and the prompts were black, so a session flashed between the two every time you finished a set. If you preferred the white background, it is still there. Turn on "Light background" in Garmin Connect. It reflects more light and is genuinely easier to read in direct sun on a fenix or Enduro.